Most mothers and babies fare better in small maternity units

In the article "Close small maternity units and centralise care, demands leading doctor" (News), Dr Tony Falconer, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, advises that up to one in three NHS obstetric units should close so that women can receive better care in fewer, larger units. All evidence to date indicates that women receive poorer care in these large units.

The findings of the well-respected Birthplace Study in England last year showed that healthy women and babies have better care and outcomes when they give birth either at home or in free-standing midwifery units. Consultant obstetricians are experts for women and babies with complications and should be focusing on these women. Tony Falconer's suggestions fly in the face of a wealth of evidence supporting midwifery care for the majority of women, with obstetric care for the few.

Beverley A Lawrence Beech

Dr Nadine Edwards

Elizabeth Prochaska

Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services

Surbiton

Surrey

Junk the Olympic junk ads

Thank you for your long and thoughtful evaluation of the Olympics (editorial), but your reservations about advertising were far too mild, even though you used the phrase "brazen appearance" in relation to McDonald's and Coca-Cola. In terms of the public interest in general and public health in particular, the prominent presence of unhealthy advertising has been nothing less than squalid. We need a fundamental reappraisal of the role of advertising in society that values rather than trashes public health.

Dr Peter Draper

London N6

Don't be ageist about music

I'm not sure which bit of the Latitude festival Vanessa Thorpe saw during her visit, but I was there for three glorious days with my wife, son aged 18 and daughter aged 15, and we did not see a single bottle of prosecco ("Festival dads show their attitude at Latitude and stay cool with the kids"). This was probably because you are not allowed to bring glass bottles into the festival arena. But I did see lots of blokes last seen clapping along with Simple Minds in the 1980s. So I don't think she was right about 50 being the "top end" of the age range, either.

Her article inadvertently replicated the absurd ageism that is ruining BBC radio. I enjoyed Ben Howard with my daughter as much as she enjoyed Simple Minds with me. We all laughed through one comedy act after another and relished intelligent conversation with Brian Cox and Tim Lott. If BBC programmers concentrated more on quality and less on quantification, they might hold and even increase their audiences.

David Cesarani

London NW2

The shame of tax avoidance

Dispatch, Scranton, Pennsylvania (News) painted a gruesome picture of a community facing bankruptcy in part because local politicians are unwilling to jeopardise their positions by raising taxes. The article calls for a national debate about tax. I think that debate is long overdue in the UK.

Politicians unwilling to be up front about tax and a culture of tax avoidance for individuals and companies, supported by a host of professional services, is economically self-defeating and bad manners. If UK citizens support you as a company by buying your goods and services or as an individual by not turning off when you are presenting on the BBC then it is only polite to give something back by paying your tax in full.

Veronica Mole

London N22

Let's get real about the banks

So the Libor scandal has brought more invective, soul-searching and argument over the state of the banking industry. To my mind, the nature of investment banking is painfully clear: it creates nothing tangible, the only product being wealth; the only driver is profit; its vast salaries are dictated by the maximising of profit; it is frequently a zero-sum game, so if you don't want to be the loser, you'd better make sure you're the winner; and it has fostered a culture that celebrates ruthlessness, risk and hubris. Is it any wonder that it attracts greedy, self-serving, amoral individuals? Can we please get real about what sort of industry this is? Then we can get real about whether we tolerate it, strictly regulate it or let some other country ride the roller-coaster. Would someone calculate UK plc's profit and loss from this sector over the last 15 years? The answer might strengthen our resolve to confront the banks.

Ed Stoppard

Bristol

Tax the dead to support the old

The government is trying to work out how to fund the cost of care for the elderly when the answer is pretty straightforward ("The daunting question that hangs over cost of care for elderly", Cash). Since collecting the cost of care from the living is complicated, what is wrong with collecting it when they are dead? The inheritance tax threshold has no logical argument to support its existence, so why not abolish it and use the tax obtained to support the care for the living?

Derek Dod

Southsea

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